A five-day international training workshop on fisheries access agreement has successfully ended in Monrovia with the Deputy Director-General for Administration noting that technical competence is cardinal to the economic growth of Liberia.
Speaking Friday, May 27, 2022 at the close of the weeklong training workshop which took place at a local hotel, Mr. Augustine M. Manoballah mentioned that there is a need for qualified technicians to take the lead in negotiating key access agreements as such would yield positive outcome for the country.
Manoballah urged that the "skills gathered from the workshop should be used to impact Liberia when the need arises, particularly during technical access negotiations as such, it will set a new beginning for Liberia".
Speaking further Manoballah noted that participants at the training workshop gathered pertinent skills that would be used during negotiations within their various professional fields of work.
Meanwhile, participants at the training workshop commended the organizers and facilitators for what they termed as "an eye opener training workshop intended to broaden their negotiation skills".
Participants at the training workshop were drawn from line government ministries and agencies including the National Port Authority, Environmental Protection Agency, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Justice, Maritime, and the Ministry of Agriculture. Two Liberian talk show hosts - Julius Jeh of Okay FM and Abraham Wheon of Freedom FM participated in the training.
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The Participants at the training were drilled through several topics including Fisheries access agreements & arrangements, access agreement types and the typical structure of an access agreement, the interests of African States, and the dominant fishing fleets, their strategies and tactics.
Other topics that were treated are regional co-operation and the minimum terms and conditions of access approach, management of access agreements by Coastal States and conservation and environmental issues.
Other topics covered during the training were the Law of the Sea Convention, Fish stocks Agreement, FAO Compliance Agreement, FAO Port State Measures Agreement, FAO Code of Conduct and the Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO).
The weeklong international fisheries capacity building training was facilitated by Africa Legal Support Facility (ALSF) and was financed by the African Development Bank.
